Code Monkeys
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- For the phrase on which this program's title is based, see code monkey.
| Code Monkeys | |
|---|---|
 Code Monkeys title card |
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| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Adam de la Pena |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 15 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | G4 |
| Audio format | 320 kbit/s |
| Original run | July 11, 2007 – Present |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Code Monkeys is an original animated series on the video-game oriented television channel G4. The show was created by Adam de la Peña, the creator of Adult Swim's Minoriteam and Comedy Central's I'm With Busey, and follows the adventures of a video game company in the early 1980s.
Jonathan Coulton’s song "Code Monkey" serves as the theme song of the show. The original music for the show, video game-styled underscore, is composed by Jon and Al Kaplan. Other music prominently featured in the series includes music by Los Angeles heavy metal group Tinhorn.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
The plot of Code Monkeys revolves around the fictitious video game company GameaVision (a play on companies like ActiVision and ColecoVision) and its eccentric employees, mainly the slacker Dave and his high-strung friend Jerry. Many of the references in the show suggest that it is set sometime around 1982 (in episode five, Clare states that "it's the 80s!"), during the Atari-era video game boom and E.T. for the Atari 2600. However, the show is full of so many (possibly intentional) anachronisms that the actual date will probably never be made clear, but will probably still be in the 80s.
The animation in Code Monkeys is unique in that all of the characters are rendered with an 8-bit color palette and all of the backgrounds are in 16-bit, close to the graphic capabilities of the SNES. The sprites used for the characters have many similarities to those in the NES game River City Ransom. The look of the show is also supposed to mimic the structure and appearance of a classic video game. The beginning of the show begins with a screen flashing "PLAYER 1 START!" and the end of show closes with a black "GAME OVER" screen. The top of the screen is occupied by a health bar consisting of seven heart containers (a la The Legend of Zelda), though it does change in certain situations, such as a list, and a point counter which dispenses points throughout the episode, usually with a sound effect, and usually when a character picks something up. The bottom portion of the screen is occupied by a large text box that says, "CODE MONKEYS", although in some instances this is replaced by text related to the scene. At each commercial break, a small pause box appears in the middle of the screen which freezes the show (although this was sometimes replaced with a box that read "An error has occurred. Please wait while Code Monkeys reboots", a la Macs before Mac OS X).
The humor in Code Monkeys is mostly grounded in toilet humor and black comedy, but some of the show's jokes stem from its numerous references to 1980s video games, including Castlevania, Mega Man, Contra, Ikari Warriors, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Super Mario Bros., and others. This also extends to cameos from well known video game developers, who appear in the show pitching their ideas for the games that would later make them famous to GameaVision, only to be rejected, insulted, and sometimes injured or killed off: for example, a child prodigy version of David Jaffe got his face kicked in after pitching the idea for God of War, and Lorne Lanning got electrocuted and tossed in a well after pitching Oddworld, and later eaten by a bear.
Several months before Code Monkeys was released, G4 launched an elaborate advertising campaign for the show in which GameaVision was presented as a real game company. There were two commercial advertisements for the fictitious games "Crosswalk" and "Barfight", the games "Sir Eats-A-Lot" and "Floating Space Rocks" were featured in a "Cheat! G-Spot" segment, and "Barfight" was featured in an episode of Attack of the Show. G4 even created GameaVision's own website, featuring two playable games: "2 Card Monte", which cannot be won; and "Hangman", which contains fewer than 10 words, all of which are meant to insult the player.
[edit] Characters
- Dave (voiced by Adam de la Peña): Jerry's best friend and office-mate, with whom he designs games. It was stated in one episode that he was adopted by Jerry so that he could remain in the country. However, unlike Jerry, Dave is irresponsible, messy, rude, constantly stoned, and focuses his attention more on playing games than making them. A rampant hedonist, the only things that seem to motivate Dave are money, weed, and sex. In fact, most of the show's and characters' predicaments are caused by Dave's erratic and impulsive actions. Despite all this, Dave has flair to all of his actions and is a competent game programmer. Throughout the series, Dave has the running gag of making statements that are unintentionally paradoxical by today's standards; for instance, Dave states that he doesn't believe the home computer will be successful in the future, saying it will be a "passing fad, like MTV". Another running gag is Dave's habit of humping random things and/or people, which has been shown in almost every episode aired thus far. There is also a possibility that Dave is not legally residing in the US, indicated by the fact that Jerry adopted him to avoid getting deported. In the 4/20 episode, Dave got the employees of Gameavision to find the Declaration of Independence because he was out of weed and he heard it was made out of hemp. He also mentioned in one episode the Vietnamese killed his dad, hinting he was killed in the Vietnam war. He owns a white cat, Dr. Freckles with whom he has taken Peyote and crashed a car into Gameavision with. His Dungeons and Dragons name is San-Dow. Owns what looks like a Gibson Flying V.
- Jerry (voiced by Matt Mariska): Dave's best friend, co-worker, and office-mate. Unlike Dave, Jerry is hard-working, responsible, and tidy. However, usually under Dave's negative influence, Jerry will succumb to sinful pleasures, such as strippers and caffeine, often with disastrous outcomes. Jerry's running gags throughout the series deal with his unrequited crush on fellow programmer Mary (Who can't stand him, mainly because of his friendship with Dave) and his tendency to involuntarily wet himself in stressful conditions, especially when held at gunpoint or being yelled at. His Dungeons and Dragons character's name is Penlock.
- Mr. Bob "Big" T. "Shoot First and Ask Questions" Larrity (voiced by Andy Sipes): Larrity is the current head of GameaVision, a Texan millionaire who bought the company from Steve Wozniak, despite the fact that he knows nothing about video games, only that they're sure to make him rich (Or at least richer than he already is.) In addition to his ignorance, Larrity is violent, manic, bigoted, possibly insane, and treats his employees with no respect but still cares about them to some degree, particularly for Dave, Jerry, and especially Benny. He spends most of his time lounging in his enormous, ostentatiously decorated office. He has been married at least seven times and even had one of his wives stuffed and kept in his secret vault (as seen in "Super Prison Break-Out"). Similar to shop keepers featured in The Legend of Zelda series, his desk displays 3 random objects that change from episode to episode. Amongst Larrity's many federal offenses are graft, running a psychic hotline scam, illegally adopting an elephant, a shampoo factory accident, running a white slavery ring, a torture academy, a wombat mill, inebriating eagles, involvement in the Three Mile Island accident, vehicular manslaughter, and having meth being cooked up in the back of his bondage club (which he denies any knowledge of happening). Also, the episode "Vegas, Baby!" points out that he can fly a plane, and the episode "The Revenge of Matsui" mentions that he was a 3-time Texas all-star linebacker. And in the 4/20 episode he claimed to have some 'back-seat wrasslin" with Nancy Reagan before she hooked up with that senile old coot
- Dean Larrity (voiced by Andy Sipes): Dean is Mr. Larrity's extremely muscular but extremely stupid son (the episode "Vegas, Baby!" indicates that his GPA is 1.2), appointed by his father as GameaVision's Head Supervisor (and occasionally, the company's official corpse disposer). However, Dean rarely interacts with the other employees and doesn't participate in any of the programming (his office consists entirely of a weight machine and a cardboard box he uses as a desk). When his father dies, Dean will inherit GameaVision and his dad's wealth; he plans to buy a luckdragon. He is likely to utilize violence to solve problems; for example, in order to turn a stereo off, he destroyed it by repeatly slamming Dave onto it; mainlydue to the fact that he says, "Anything with more than one button confuses me!". While at first it seemed as though Dean is Mr. Larrity's only son, Mr. Larrity states in "E.T." that he has another son (Dean's brother) who is in jail. In the episode "IPO", Dean hints that he was in a fraternity and was accused by a woman of an unnamed crime, likely sexual assault. (His dad paid off the D.A. to get him off the hook.) Dean has no knowledge of computers whatsoever (in one episode, when he was trying to pose as a programmer because everyone else had run off, he attempted to turn on the computer by shaking it and screaming "Computer, turn on! Computer become not off!"). Dean never finished college.
- Todd Friedman (voiced by Dana Snyder): Todd is a fellow game designer, an obese, 33-year old nerd who's always seen wearing a horned helmet for some roleplaying, or egomaniacal purposes. Although all of the other designers look upon Todd with contempt, Todd continues to have delusions of grandeur and considers himself to be the greatest and the sexiest of the designers at GameaVision. Todd is one of the more disturbed characters of the show, often confusing the lines between reality and his Dungeons & Dragons-fueled fantasy world (in which he takes on the alter-ego Pardue), and apparently engaging in an incestuous relationship with his mother. He also has an extreme love for Nacho cheese. According to G4tv.com/gameavision, Todd is the son of Gameavision's founder, Ivan Friedman. He also temporarily married a Vietnamese masseuse named Ping, who came to America through mail order. Todd divorces her because he believes that giving massages to anyone other than Todd is being unfaithful. In "Super Prison Breakout", he steals from Mr. Larrity to buy a collection of Tiffany dolls(Apparently having sex with one,as said in an episode), who appears in episodes after that.It is apparent that Todd is multilingual:speaking English, Japanese to a lesser extent , Vietnamese, and German
- Black Steve (voiced by Tony Strickland): Black Steve is GameaVison's accountant and, as his nickname would imply, is the only known black man working at the company. He is foul-mouthed and ill-tempered towards both white people and inanimate objects, taking any chance to pull his semi-automatic pistol at anything that angers him. Despite his position, Black Steve's contributed a number of games for the company, including "Honkey Killer" "Die Die Meter Maid" "Homey Pidgeon" and "Cracker Barrel". Black Steve's character is also one of the most secretive. Although seemingly violent, he is accomplished in Japanese and wrestling, and went to Dartmouth. Black Steve's wrestling experience comes from his old career of underground wrestling. His wrestler name was "Black Shadow." Black Steve decided to quit the career after he killed a man. His rage comes from his childhood where he grew up in an all-white, peanuts-esque neighboorhood where the other kids constantly tried to talk like black people which frustrated him to no end.
- Mary (voiced by Gretchen McNeil): Mary is GameaVision's sole female programmer, and subsequently isn't taken seriously by any of the other misogynistic employees, with the exception of Jerry, who has major (although unrequited) crush on her although she rebuffs his advances mostly because of Jerry's association with Dave. In the episode, "Just One of the Gamers", Mary disguises herself as "Mitch"(Who jerry had started to have gay feelings for) who is her "brother" in order to gain respect from her male co-workers and it is also revealed that she can breakdance.
- Clare (voiced by Suzanne Keilly): Clare is GameaVision's promiscuous receptionist; the absolute antithesis to the feminist-minded, self-respecting Mary. She's extremely self-centered and considers herself the prettiest female employee in the company as well as being oblivious to the fact that she is in most cases a whore. Most of the time, she's treated with disrespect by the other GameaVision employees, and is most often subject to physical harm and bad luck.
- Benny Lee (voiced by Dana Snyder): Benny is a 10 year-old Korean child, illegally adopted by Larrity to test the company's games. Fed on a diet of cigarettes, Pixy Stix, and amphetamines to keep him game-testing nonstop, Benny is constantly hyper and usually spends his time roaming through the building's air vents and making money selling candy and drugs to the other employees. He boasts of Korean superiority often, such as in "Vegas, Baby!" when he stated that, "once again, Koreans rule the world!" after beating Gill Bates in a game of poker for control of GameaVision. Benny is also very flippant and foul-mouthed to most of his co-workers, due to the unlikely power he wields. Without Benny's approval, no game can be shipped, leading to the staff bribing him repeatedly.
- Clarence (voiced by Lionel Tubbins): Clarence is GameaVision's audio designer. Flamboyantly gay, Clarence wears sparkly jumpsuits, sings all of his dialogue, and constantly makes blatant references to gay sex. Like Black Steve, despite not being a designer, Clarence has made a number of games, including "Clarence's Balls" and "Fruit Planet". Clarence also, without notice, sometimes makes out with different people during some episodes. Clarence has demonstrated the abilities to levitate and pass through walls (using 'gay magic' which can be toggled on and off), this is probably a play on the "fairy" pejorative of homosexuality.
[edit] Minor Characters
The minor characters are people at Gameavision that are physically present at the company, but have yet to have a real role in the plot.
- Wendy (voiced by Julia Rose): Wendy is an intern at Gameavision. Dave has an infatuation with her, more because she is physically attractive than any romantic feelings on Dave's part. At first she didn't mind Dave's attraction, but is later repelled over his oddities and perversion. Wendy has been a silent, unnamed character up to the episode "IPO," and had a speaking role only in "IPO" and "Wrassle Mania."
- Hank Summers: Hank is Benny's silent bodyguard. He has a cameo in every episode, seen at least in the background, but he doesn't have any lines or more than a few seconds of screen time per episode. Hank always has his army fatigues, his arms folded, and a pair of sunglasses. Hank is very strong and is apparently military trained. He shares a bunk with Benny in Benny's room, probably to better take care of him.
- "The Unknown Employee": The "Unknown Employee" is an apparently Asian character that has been featured in the background of every episode, but has yet to have any speaking lines or even be identified. He wears a shirt that has a picture of what looks like The Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda. He has been seen talking, but this is only when every other employee is speaking or arguing in the conference room, thus rendering his words inaudible.
[edit] Other Characters
These characters are not classified under the other two categories because they have only appeared in one episode.
- Mitch: Mary disguised as a man. Mitch only appears in the episode "Just One of the Gamers". Mitch claims to be Mary's brother. Mary becomes Mitch after Larrity gives Dave credit for her new game "Space Marines", then asks Dave if he heard that "a woman thinks she made a game". Dave realizes this, and whispers "Come on, Mary, be cool for once. This is my big shot." Mary runs out crying. With advice from Benny (which he heard from his dead grandfather, a possible reference to The Karate Kid), she visits an all-men clothes store and becomes Mitch.
- Ping: Todd's Vietnamese mail-order wife. She is a masseuse and the only English word she knows is massage, which she says to ask if someone needs a massage. She only appears in the episode "Larrity's Got Back", knows illegal Vietnamese information (which she uses to try to get Larrity a new butt donor via chopper, which is shot down by a tank gun, Bellecovision's new defense). Todd also stated that she is slightly retarded but he could be lying since they have a conversation in her native langauge. She is not a recurring character because Todd divorces her at the end of the episode because he thinks that giving massages to anyone other than him is being unfaithful.
[edit] Locations
- The entire series takes place in the city Sunnyvale (presumably in California, as it is one of the major cities that comprise the Silicon Valley), but the following are the primary locations featured prominently in the series:
- Game-A-Vision - The show's chief gaming company and main location. Its name and logo are references to Activision.
- Bellecovision - Gameavision's chief rival. Dave describes it as "the ass of the gaming industry" or "where awesomeness goes to die." One of their buildings was attacked in the episode E.T. The company is still in operation apparently, as they are shown to still be selling games in Stonervision. Its name is a reference to ColecoVision. Bellecovision is shown to be very vicious, even having a slave driver.
- Protendo - Japanese video game company. Tried to merge with Gameavision in The Take Over. The company is a parody of Nintendo. Protendo is also one of Gameavision's rivals. It is apparently destroyed in the first season finale when the CEO of the company activates a bomb that destroys Protendo's headquarters.
- Stonervision - Dave and Jerry's game company. It only released one game, and was funded by a drug lord. Its name was a reference to Dave's frequent use of marijuana. Stonervision went out of business due to the extremely poor sales of its only released game. Contains Dave's Garage (this was where Dave and Jerry conducted all their business. Features "a bean bag chair shaped like tits.")
- U.S.S. Notajetski - The submarine the Game-A-Vision staff uses to travel to Japan in the episode The Revenge of Matsui. Larrity claims he stole it from the Russians in Vietnam. After they arrive, Larrity blows it up, because he likes to "always keep 'em guessing."
- MoneyBank - The bank that Dave and Jerry try to rob unsuccessfully in Stonervision. The bank's slogan is visible over the counter on a sign that reads: "MoneyBank, A Bank for Money".
- "The Purple Nipple" strip club - A strip club that Dave frequently visits. The name is most likely a variation of the schoolyard bullying technique "The Titty Twister" which results in "Purple Nipples".
- The Branded Calf - A country style steakhouse. It was seen in Just One Of The Gamers as a staff party location.
- Jerry's Apartment - It appeared in IPO, filled with hookers and Chinese organ thieves. It was also seen that Jerry possibly drives a DeLorean that highly resembles the one seen in the Back to the Future movie series.
- Rapeville State Penitentiary - The prison where Super Prison Breakout takes place. The original warden, James Tiberius Shank (whose name closely resembles that of Star Trek captain, James Tiberius Kirk), was killed by John Hondo during his breakout. Clarence recorded a live album there, à la Johnny Cash in At Folsom Prison. All the prison guards are made to resemble characters of the 'Marathon games series' and have voice and speech patterns similar to well known characters from the popular machinima series 'Red Vs Blue'.
- Shermer High - The fictional American high school of The Breakfast Club fame is shown in the episode Todd Loses His Mind. Believing he is his alter-ego Pardue, Todd arrives there to complete the first of his three tasks on his quest, to abduct Molly Ringwald.
- Gary Gygax's House - Shown in the episode Todd Loses His Mind. On the outside, it looks like a gigantic 20-sided die for Dungeons & Dragons. Here, Todd (or rather, Pardue) drops off his abductee Molly Ringwald in order to complete his second task: to have Gary Gygax grant him more power (which consists of 3 points of strength, 5 points of dexterity, 6 points of sexual stamina, and 200 points of charisma).
- Hitler Castle - Shown in the episode Third Reich's the Charm. The Hitler family castle where Hitler's grandchildren have been trying hard to remove the negative image associated with their family name. It also contained Adolf Hitler frozen in carbonite, a reference to The Return of The Jedi. Though he was subsequently unfrozen by Dave and Black Steve, Hitler committed suicide after being defeated by cowboys in a Final Fantasy-esque fight sequence.
- The Purple Helmet - A strip club located in Las Vegas. It has the same basic layout as The Purple Nipple, but reversed, with its logo looking similar to "Halo's" Master Chief's helmet but purple. It also features male strippers instead of female. Mary and Clare visited this club in the episode Vegas, Baby!
- The Movie Theater - The movie theater where Dave was supposed to see E.T. in the episode E.T.
- The Hospital - Shown in the episode Larrity's Got Back. Here, Larrity finds out that he has butthole cancer, so he needs his butthole removed. Later, he returns here for an ass transplant (which turns out to be an enormous ass from a lady named Lakeisha Addams). Later still, he is sent back here because of "total ass failure" from the transplant. Finally, he ends up here one more time to receive a transplant from Dave's ass (which turned out to have herpes). The hospital was also shown in the season two premiere "Dave gets Boobs." It is viewed when Dave is leaving the hospital after Dave gets his new breasts, and when Dave is leaving after they are removed.
- The Mysterious Room - At the very end of every episode, this appears to be a collage of negative versions of various images used in that episode. It bears a striking resemblance to a kill screen from old arcade games. However, at the end of the first season finale episode The Revenge of Matsui, it turned out to be an actual upper-level room in GameaVision.
- Clare's Dungeon-In the episode IPO, Clare opens her own S&M Dungeon using the money from borrowing against her Gameavision stock. She is the Dominatrix, and lures Mary to the dungeon by saying that Duran Duran is playing. It closes after the stock crashes, and Mary sells it to a man wanting to make it a parking area. Clare is still dressed in the dungeon outfit, chained and gagged (and screaming inaudibly) in the background, implying that Mary put her there. She escapes somehow.
[edit] Featured games
Throughout the series, the GameaVision staff always references or creates games on the show. Some of the games can be found on the GameaVision website, as well as here (failed games).
- God of War In the episode "Just One of the Gamers", David Jaffe guest stars and pitches the game to Larrity. Jaffe is subsequently fired and says his mother isn't there to pick him up. Larrity throws him out the window, hiring Mitch instead.
- The Color Purple In the episode "E.T.", when the meeting with Steven Spielberg is over, Todd approaches Larrity and pitches a game based on the book. Larrity refuses and tells Todd to leave.
- E.T. Technically, this game was put through, but because it was so awful, Larrity changed the Gameavision label to a Bellecovision label, which leads to the destruction of the nearby Bellecovision building.
[edit] Episode list
For the list of Code Monkeys episodes, see List of Code Monkeys episodes.
[edit] Ratings
According to the president of G4, the first season was a huge success for the network. Durings it's first season the show was watched by more than 20 million people. .[1]
[edit] DVD Release
Shout! Factory announced that, partnering with G4TV, they would release a Season One DVD of Code Monkeys on August 5th, 2008.
